Monday, September 7, 2009

How Can a Casino Lose Money?

I don't have an answer to that. What I do note though is some kind of give-your-public-institution-a-bad-name-and-hang-it disease that has been afflicting our country for too long. Take the CEB for example. It was declared absolutely dependent on private capital about a decade ago and found guilty of all kinds of sins one of which apparently seemed to have found its way back into the 12th report the NESC has just released.

A craving which eventually translated into higher electricity prices for us and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to seriously degrade the competitiveness of Mauritius Inc. That situation was so ridiculous that it even got a gullible Ramgoolam to do his chess-thumping routine nearly two years ago. What he termed a historic agreement then has still to make iota of difference for a super majority of voters.

Same issue at the CNT. How can it not be profitable? Well if you had a look at the types of buses that they've been putting on the roads for ages compared to the types of cars that they've been allowed to purchase you could be getting closer to a hint.

We know for a fact that the private sector doesn't have a monopoly over common sense or good management for that matter. We've seen proof of that again with the recent and controversial stimulus package: it seemed to be such a marvellous thing as long as it remained opaque. But the private sector can take some comfort in not having designed such an absurd scheme.